Health briefs ...

Morris News Service

Published Wednesday, September 29, 2004

CDC recommends early childhood flu vaccination

ATLANTA -- A report issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that only 4.4 percent of the nation's children aged 6 to 23 months were fully vaccinated against influenza during the 2002-03 flu season, the first season CDC encouraged influenza vaccination for healthy children. The CDC estimates that only 7.4 percent of the children aged 6 to 23 months had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

To be fully vaccinated, previously unvaccinated children should receive two doses, the CDC said. Children who have received any dose of influenza vaccine in previous years require only one annual dose.

Recent studies show that children less than two years old, even healthy children, are more likely than older children to be hospitalized with serious complications if they get the flu.

When in Rome eat as the Romans do

Researchers writing in the current issue of Journal of the American Medical Association report that eating a Mediterranean-style diet and following other healthy practices will help you lose weight and live longer.

Two separate studies concluded that a Mediterranean-style diet, moderate alcohol use, physical activity, and nonsmoking, reduced the risk of death from any cause by 23 percent, 22 percent, 37 percent, and 35 percent, respectively.

The results were similar when the researchers looked at mortality due to coronary heart disease, cardiovascular diseases in general, and cancer.

The presence of all four of these beneficial activities reduced the risk of death from any cause by 65 percent. Around 60 percent of all deaths were attributed to not pursuing these activities.

The Mediterranean-style diet calls for eating high levels of whole grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Research targets drug-resistant bacteria

Based on an improved understanding of bacteriophages -- viruses that infect bacteria -- scientists reporting in the Sept. 23 issue of the journal Nature believe they have discovered a potential new way to control drug-resistant bacteria, an increasingly worrisome public health problem.

The new research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, found that bacteriophages contain genes that allow them to quickly change their proteins to bind to different cell receptors. The researchers, who encountered this genetic property while working on an unrelated project, believe that this discovery could lead to the use of genetically engineered phages to treat bacterial infections that have become resistant to antibiotics.

UCLA researchers found that the genome of the phage that infects Bordetella bronchiseptica, a relative of the bacterium that causes whooping cough, contains a series of genes that change the part of the virus that binds to the bacterial cell. These genes allow the phage to rapidly evolve new variants that can recognize and attack bacteria that may have become resistant to the previous phage.

"Phage therapy has been practiced for nearly a hundred years in parts of the world, and even in the United States in the first half of the 20th century," said lead researcher Dr. Jeffery F. Miller. "But now we think we can engineer bacteriophages to function as dynamic' anti-microbial agents. This could provide us with a renewable resource of smart antibiotics for treating bacterial diseases."

Bionic bladder control

About 17 million Americans suffer from urge incontinence, an uncontrollable urge to use the restroom. Staying away from caffeine helps, so do some drugs, but not without side effects.

A device now being researched may put an end to the urge one day. Urologist Ken Peters of William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan is researching a therapy device called the Bion. The device, about the size of a matchstick, is implanted in an area where it stimulates nerves that go to the bladder, sending a signal to the brain, telling the system to function more normally.

Bion is similar to a device known as Interstim, which acts like a pacemaker for the bladder. But the Bion is smaller and requires a simpler surgery. The battery has to be recharged daily.

Condom mishaps

Errors undermine consistent condom use.

A study of people who visited a Colorado STD clinic found that about half of those who regularly used condoms reported mishaps ranging from breakage to slippage, HealthDay News reports. The study appears in the September issue of the journal "Sexually Transmitted Diseases."

Risk of gonorrhea and chlamydia grew significantly among the heterosexual men who reported such condom errors.